How refreshing it is to shower in the pouring rain!
Well, only in Salacuim does the saying "When it rains, it pours!" come alive. The climate is mostly ideal here, except now whe the temperature hovers around the 100F (40F) mark with 100% humidity. But the days are clear blue skies with strong sun rays lighting up all the different hues and colors of green of the surrounding forest. And as the night falls, when most are in their houses anyway (due to no lights anywhere and nothing to do in the village), the rain begins to pour bringing down the sweltering temperature just in time for a comfortable night sleep.I, as with most everyone here, have a tin roof, so the sound of the rain drops bouncing off the roof makes a symphony of noise that totally wraps and surrounds you, and drowns out any noise or even any thougths in your head that may be keeping you up. The symphony of rain drops somehow becomes as comforting for sleeping as any elevator music.
Then you wake up the next morning, to see that the trees are even greener as they had their fill of water and the dusts have been washed off the leaves. The day after a night of rain,truely a "New Day", cooler temperatures, more beareable humidity, cleaner air, and brighter colors and animals and birds all come out of their holes playing.
But the reason that I am writing about this is that I had the most awesome experience with the rain here the other night. At about seven o'clock the other night, the wind picked up out of nowhere, lighting can be seen in the distance...then all of the suddenit was like we were in a movie about a natural disaster, with coconuts dropping like bombs all over our tin roofs, and our humble wooden cabins were making noises as if it was gonna lift off the ground. Then the rain came, and it was litterally coming down in buckets and the buckets were flying sideways. My land lord came into my house with a neighbor to hide as they thought their houses were going come crumbling down. The sky was as angery as ever with lighting striking close enough to feel as it was gonna touch you.
But in the midst of the nightmare, I marveled at how refreshing the rain was, especially in the dry season when our waterwell was starting to dry up and I never had running water in the first place. Plus I had not taken a shower that day when I was dripping in sweat.
I got this crazy thought to take advantage of the fresh rain and decided to take a shower underneath the roof gutter. Then I decided since no one was around and it was dark, I was gonna do it nude. I jumped into the gushing gutter waterfall.. and started screaming in happiness as the water was so pleasurable (hard to imagine this, unless you had been taking bucket baths and using well water). I sang in the rain. I didn't care, no one can see me in the darkness (except the occasional falsh of the lightning) and no one can hear me over the noise of the rain.
I thought to myself how beautiful nature is and how lucky I was to enjoy such a natural experience, showering in the nude, in the water from the sky and watching the light show of lighting and not to give two shits as to what anyone thinks or sees..
But things suddendly changed as the lighting hit somewhere too close for comfort.. I started turning on my rational brain again. I thought, I don't have to worry, what is the chance of me getting hit by lighting, after all I am not standing next to any towering cell towers or buildings ...the only thing that is tall are the trees and they are not conductors..But then I thought, well the roof is metal..but then I am not touching the roof or the house for that matter..no worries..Oh shit..I am showering with water that is coming directly from the metal roof with a big conducting waterfall to my head!! you never saw me run naked so fast into the house!!
This will be one of the most memorable momments in my life...I am waiting for the next big rainstorm with lighting... Not only was it a wonderful experience but what an adrenaline rush!!!